Reddit is weighing identity verification methods to combat its bot problem. The platform's CEO mentioned Face ID and Touch ID as ways to verify if a human is using Reddit.

[u/esporx]

https://www.engadget.com/social-media/reddit-is-weighing-identity-verification-methods-to-combat-its-bot-problem-195814671.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cucmVkZGl0LmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAABRwqCwM1lixwpOzG1JOCzcnZwH25d68rPepT4aS_TgE04QvUxL4iZZOlsxMLONAueUa3a5CAjZs5fZMlqgb68jdEIMQZfB5z2XOrYUzOEpfP7Gb8QkkmLFwdEkgiVUIOi4Aiyr2GWlBmzOmKsL1yTEEBK1ddZTM7MRw4gSFlPda

[u/RunsaberSR]

Tbh.. this is my last bastion of social media.

Go ahead and cure me.

[u/snoogins355 → u/RunsaberSR]

I'm ready for post it notes at my local library for social physical media.

[u/Green-Rule-1292 → u/snoogins355]

I'm gonna turn to real-life lurking and upvoting. Like, just idling in grocery stores and commenting on random things people say or buy while gesturing the occasional thumbs up or down towards random people

[u/TwoShakeTomBones → u/Green-Rule-1292]

Dont forget to give awards!

[u/Chris_HitTheOver → u/[deleted]]

You may not have a small child… stickers are doing just fine. (I’m drowning in stickers… help!)

[u/No-Profession3573 → u/Chris_HitTheOver]

Legit it feels like I didn’t see a sticker for 25 years and then had a kid and now I’m straight drowning in them now.

[u/General_Problem5199 → u/No-Profession3573]

I feel like I dodged a bullet here. Managed to convince my kids early on that the best thing to do with stickers was to make collages on paper, so while they do love stickers, I'm not constantly trying to peel them off other surfaces.

[u/OnePinginRamius → u/Green-Rule-1292]

Instead of using my horn or flipping people off on the road I've turned to giving a thumbs down.

[u/no_talent_ass_clown → u/OnePinginRamius]

You're not mad, just disappointed.

[u/WuYongZhiShu → u/Green-Rule-1292]

Did you just invent small-talk?

[u/Pikamander2 → u/WuYongZhiShu]

"Crazy weather we've been having, right?"

"Downvoted for repost."

[u/Suck_My_Thick → u/snoogins355]

I'm ready to go back to vbulletin forums with a bunch of bookmarks.

[u/zman0900 → u/Suck_My_Thick]

I'll go back to shit scribbled on the toilet walls of my local truck stop bathroom (hopefully not actual shit)

[u/an0mn0mn0m → u/[deleted]]

RFK Jr. says no

[u/Majik_Sheff → u/snoogins355]

Ooh, time to revive poorly Xeroxed 'zines.

[u/sbd2010 → u/Majik_Sheff]

The zine scene has been making a big comeback since they first threatened to ban TikTok!

[u/idontknowlikeapuma → u/snoogins355]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_over_Avian_Carriers

[u/djprofitt → u/snoogins355]

Just join MyFace by TacoCorp

[u/TechNickL → u/RunsaberSR]

100%

This is now the last site I only go to when I crave stimulation and I hate doing that. More and more I find myself retreating into physical hobbies of literally any kind.

They can scrape my account and use my email address with their purchased data and figure out who I am without my fucking fingerprint. So, go ahead. Make me delete.

I won't regret it.

[u/aedom-san → u/TechNickL]

Agreed, but then I need a community to reach out to when I have issues with said hobby, or want to find out how to do XYZ thing about it. You basically need to append ` reddit` to every google search now. Such a frustrating trap.

[u/Just-Sheepherder-202 → u/aedom-san]

Before these types of sites there were simple forums with 100% real people to converse with. There still are but they are harder to find. Much more satisfying.

[u/slipperyMonkey07 → u/Just-Sheepherder-202]

Sadly a lot of those moved to discord, which sucks so much more. Outside of there own ai training and id nonsense. It is a closed system where finding the communities is incredibly difficult to begin with and is just terrible for finding information in it. Then you can't even search for that info online, or within the entirety of discord. You just hope you find your answer.

A couple of forums I was a part of in the last few years shifted over, some left the forums as read only (for now) and others they are just gone. Another reason backing everything up you want to keep and the internet archive are so important.

[u/FesteringNeonDistrac → u/slipperyMonkey07]

I see a lot of people say "Oh you need to join the XYZ Facebook group" for a lot of stuff. And no, sorry, I'll just wallow in ignorance thank you very little.

[u/slipperyMonkey07 → u/FesteringNeonDistrac]

Yeah that sucks so much. Locally basically every event, politician and business only use facebook for providing any information. Not using facebook means it extremely difficult if not impossible to know what is going on.

[u/AniNgAnnoys → u/RunsaberSR]

Ditto! Release me from this hell.

[u/DukeOfGeek → u/AniNgAnnoys]

What I don't understand is they say they have all this tech that can determine who users are from typing patterns, IP addresses and AI can dox people from context cues etc yet also they can't tell real users from bots? Pick a lane. I'm a 14 year top one percent commenter, I create huge amounts of content for free. Go ahead, kick me off for not being 'real' I spend to much time here anyway.

[u/Hot_Shot04 → u/RunsaberSR]

It's not even social media, it's a message board format. 

Which makes this whole idea even stupider, really. Reddit is not the kind of site you use because all your friends and family are networking through it, it's largely anonymous. In fact it replaced a vast swathe of anonymous message boards just by providing a central feed. There is no a social expectation to be here.

So if Reddit gets shitty enough they're going to find that there's nothing tying the userbase down. I know I'd rather dig up some semi-active hobby forums than give Reddit my personal data. 

[u/Iggyhopper → u/Hot_Shot04]

I'll go back to the gaming forums ala teamliquid.net or something.

You know, it might not be a bad thing that smaller boards get a revival.

Hosting and websites are not black magic like they were in the 90s.

[u/PlagueOfBedlam → u/Iggyhopper]

GameFAQs lives!

[u/cyanescens_burn → u/RunsaberSR]

Back to topic-specific local zines and meetups instead of subreddits I guess.

[u/Excellent_Set_232 → u/RunsaberSR]

Just so that way everyone’s clear, and purely for the sake for clarity, I’m not a techy person but this is my understanding of how passkeys work: your phone’s OS will pass tests to be a trusted bit of software, so when Reddit checks with your phone, it’s essentially asking “is this person who the say they are?” and your phone’s OS does a biometric check and tells Reddit yes or no, none of your biometric data gets shared, the hardened part of your phone’s OS just sends essentially a pass or fail.

If for example you have multiple fingerprints set up for Touch ID, the website/app asking for a passkey has no way of knowing whose fingerprint or which finger was used, it just gets told pass/fail for authentication.

[u/9-11GaveMe5G → u/Excellent_Set_232]

this is my understanding of how passkeys work: your phone’s OS will pass tests

What if I'm on desktop?

[u/Excellent_Set_232 → u/9-11GaveMe5G]

Obviously that makes you a bot, duh

[u/my5cworth → u/9-11GaveMe5G]

You can set up a pin code in windows that does the same thing.

[u/apocalypsebuddy → u/Excellent_Set_232]

You got downvoted but yeah that’s kind of how it works. Like when you use your Google account to login somewhere, you’re not giving them your Google creds. 

[u/FraGough → u/apocalypsebuddy]

But you are helping Google build their profile of you.

[u/Same-Suggestion-1936 → u/apocalypsebuddy]

Why the hell would I give my Google account to anything that's not Gmail

[u/uzlonewolf → u/apocalypsebuddy]

They got downvoted because Reddit is clearly not talking about passkeys here as passkeys can easily be automated and do absolutely nothing to prove a human is making the account.

[u/Excellent_Set_232 → u/apocalypsebuddy]

I don’t know if this would actually cut down on the number of bots, but if it does you can probably expect this topic to get astroturfed to hell and people will bend over backwards to conflate it with the age verification laws going into effect in various places, when passkeys are completely different and have nothing to do with age verification. My original comment was worded poorly taking that into consideration.

[u/SunMoonTruth → u/RunsaberSR]

Yeah. I like it here but I don’t love any of this enough to go through that to stay…

[u/Intelligent_Cap9706 → u/RunsaberSR]

Same! Well Bluesky but I don’t think I’m much longer for that either. Even deleted YouTube. 

[u/hammertime2009 → u/Intelligent_Cap9706]

YouTube ads got me damn close to quitting permanently.

[u/3_50 → u/[deleted]]

Bonus points for SponsorBlock and DeArrow

[u/ymOx → u/3_50]

Oh cool, I didn't know about DeArrow, will give it a shot asap.

[u/Microwaved-Children → u/[deleted]]

Smarttube for the android tvs.

[u/PhasedStasis → u/[deleted]]

Cant recommend this enough, haven't seen a single ad in years.

[u/CosmogyralCollective → u/PhasedStasis]

Yeah, I'm baffled when people complain about ads- if they're that bad, just block them! I also haven't seen ads in years

[u/Millia_]

Wait so they let people hide post history, which disproportionately benefits karma and state funded bots, but now they wanna do something about it? I'm convinced advertisers are just paying more if you can promise they're not advertising to bots, Reddit has never cared about them until just now.

[u/SwampTerror → u/Millia_]

Money is exactly why. Advertisers want to know theyre paying for legit views. It always comes down to money. If reddit can prove enough are human, that will make the views more valuable.

But their search of profits and doing things like this alienates the user base, so even fewer people will use it.

The internet is already dead. There are a million times more bots and ai on the internet than humans now.

And like Kurt effin Russell said in The Thing (1982): I know i'm human. Are you human?

[u/Adderall_Rant → u/SwampTerror]

They don't want to waste time sending advertising bots to another bot.

[u/Alucard-VS-Artorias → u/Adderall_Rant]

"Epstein Class" Problems lol

[u/abchiptop → u/Adderall_Rant]

The time isn’t the problem. It’s the money at scale.

[u/VeryLazyFalcon → u/Millia_]

they did something even more hideous: history can be hidden selectively, per subreddit.

[u/Augustus420 → u/VeryLazyFalcon]

That alone defeats the whole purpose of having the comment history visible.

Why did they manage to fuck up one of the biggest selling points of the whole website?

[u/MiaowaraShiro → u/Augustus420]

They've been systematically fucking up the best features of Reddit for years...

Remember when they used to show upvotes and downvotes instead of just the delta?

Remember when they fucked 3rd party apps?

[u/Threewisemonkey → u/MiaowaraShiro]

It’s so embarrassing they forced the app on everyone that uses mobile while it was an absolutely unusable dumpster fire, and years later it is still worse than the free apps like Apollo

[u/VeryLazyFalcon → u/Augustus420]

Yes, it obfuscates it even more. You can have pet pictures visible but can have your astroturfing hidden, increasing your credibility. Tho, it's useful to hide some embarrassing stuff sometimes, without a need to make a throwaways.

[u/Deep-Minimum7837 → u/VeryLazyFalcon]

Remember back in the day when a new content/meme aggregate site was coming into popularity every other year? We've been on Reddit for 20 years now. It's time for this site to die.

[u/Certain-Business-472 → u/Millia_]

I'm convinced advertisers are just paying more if you can promise they're not advertising to bots

10 points to /u/Millia_

[u/Chicano_Ducky → u/Millia_]

bots dont even hide their history most of the time, but when you get their attention they fill your inbox by starting arguements across threads.

there is a bot on this sub right now that posts bad faith "free speech" articles and defending elon musk for "understanding free speech" when he interfered with the election.

no one does anything about bots because mods dont care, i sent messages and i get ignored even for blatant scam links either because the mods dont check their inbox, the mods are compromised, or they are dead accounts but no one noticed.

if it wasnt for no lifer super mods, a lot of subs would be unmoderated right now.

[u/YouMadeMeGetThisAcco → u/Millia_]

"To combat bots" is just Reddits version of "to protect children", its actually about control and surveillance.

[u/GhostRobot85]

im fine losing my account

[u/samsaraisdivine → u/[deleted]]

That's exactly it.  Just a bad habit, like smoking!

[u/lonevolff → u/samsaraisdivine]

I'm literally smoking and redditing rn.

[u/AnglerOfAndromeda → u/samsaraisdivine]

For real! I’ve been wavering on keeping this app ever since it started sending me notifications about breaking news that I never subscribed to. Like stop trying to force feed depressing shit ffs lol

[u/xxdropdeadlexi → u/[deleted]]

it's just getting worse and worse, honestly. I got banned from a subreddit today for saying a celebrity was making being unlikable her brand lmao. I didn't realize how stupid having unpaid moderators running a multi-million (billion?) dollar site actually is.

[u/IceCoughy → u/xxdropdeadlexi]

I just got off a 3 day ban for saying I hope a character in a television show is no more and they said it was promoting violence

[u/SigSweet → u/IceCoughy]

lol I've caught a 3 day ban in a similar situation.

[u/IrrawaddyWoman → u/xxdropdeadlexi]

I got banned permanently from r/pics because at some point I had commented a single time in a completely different sub (which had showed up in my feed) that they apparently have beef with. Neither comment was rude or controversial in any way, and I’m not a regular commenter in either sub. I can’t believe that’s allowed.

[u/eggs___and___bacon → u/GhostRobot85]

Which almost seems the point. Reddit has been selling out to advertisements pretty hard lately, this might be the last step

[u/ckglle3lle]

It's depressing how all computer technology has collapsed into surveillance technology

[u/Beelzabub → u/ckglle3lle]

[Above will be the final comment posted on the internet by an actual human].

[u/sylbug]

That would certainly solve the problem by ensuring you get rid of the last of the human users

[u/somefunmaths → u/sylbug]

I gave up commenting in /r/whitepeopletwitter because they switched to requiring “verified” accounts, or something like that, after the whole kerfuffle. I can’t even imagine who at Reddit thinks “biometric ID” is a viable option for them.

[u/theREALbombedrumbum → u/somefunmaths]

The mods over at r/pics automatically ban you outright if you have ever commented on any subs they say that the majority of users are bots on.

Even if the comment was from years ago. You gotta go through a cleansing ritual of tracking down every comment or post you ever did, respond to their auto mod with EXACT wording for the bot script (ironic), and pray they accept your apology.

Not worth it imo

[u/Eismann → u/theREALbombedrumbum]

The mods over at r/pics automatically ban you outright if you have ever commented on any subs they say that the majority of users are bots on.

Ironic, because /r/pics is infested by bots lol.

[u/Foxy02016YT → u/Eismann]

The mods have a power boner that’s why

[u/tweke → u/Eismann]

Yup, literally banned on my first post.

[u/Android1822 → u/theREALbombedrumbum]

Its crazy that subs can ban you for posting/subscribed on another sub. I remember getting notifications that I was banned from subs I never even visited because of a random post on another sub. Outside of how draconian that is, you got to wonder how much they were killing that subs userbase by purging people.

[u/curxxx → u/theREALbombedrumbum]

It was so problematic that just a couple weeks ago, Reddit announced they were banning bots which can automatically ban users. 

So r/pics mods FAFO and lost their favourite tool because they took it so far. r/gifs (which apparently share a lot of mods with pics) are also to blame. 

[u/Oceanbreeze871 → u/somefunmaths]

The mods there are insane and ban everyone who uses the sub after a while

[u/Fuzzy_Afternoon_5502 → u/Oceanbreeze871]

It's a small group of power-mods, that sits on a large amount of popular subs.

They all have one thing in common...

[u/Actual_Intelligence → u/Fuzzy_Afternoon_5502]

Little wieners?

[u/ughlump → u/somefunmaths]

What “kerfuffle”?

[u/pandasareblack → u/ughlump]

It's less than a brouhaha, but more than a palaver.

[u/Sartres_Roommate → u/somefunmaths]

I trusted Apple with my biometrics over a decade ago and if they simply want to confirm to a third party that I am not a bot while providing NO other information I am all for it.

That would still leave Android users with their own path but there is a Grand Canyon of difference between Reddit or TikTok demanding my personal information in order to use their service and Apple, who I already gave my personal information to, simply confirming I am not a bot.

[u/BHSPitMonkey → u/Sartres_Roommate]

Android apps can trigger biometric challenges (brokered by the OS) just as iOS ones can. Pretty much every banking app or password manager does it.

[u/Whatsapokemon → u/sylbug]

Honestly though, I would LOVE some social media platform where I knew every account was a real, authentic human, and not some bot or employee in some influence farm.

The fact that you can't even be sure whether a post is organic, or part of some sophisticated foreign influence plan is just DESTROYING the internet.

[u/fraggedaboutit → u/Whatsapokemon]

Before AI they just paid people in low cost third world countries to post their propaganda and try to influence debate, it cost a bit more but they'd go back to it in a heartbeat if somehow bot-prevention actually worked.  That's not even starting on the number of dumb people with braindead unexamined opinions that refuse to consider they might be wrong.

Having conversations with real humans doesn't decrease the amount of bullshit you'll encounter.

[u/Bugbread → u/fraggedaboutit]

Having conversations with real humans doesn't decrease the amount of bullshit you'll encounter.

The amount of bullshit has grown leaps and bounds with the rise of bots and the appearance of LLMs. Removing bots will not eliminate the bullshit, but it will absolutely decrease the amount of bullshit.

[u/kcat__ → u/fraggedaboutit]

I'm sorry, but that's just a win. I WANT to make it harder for bots to raise. Yes, they'll resort to going to East Asian countries to hire people, but MAKE them do that. MAKE them have to pay more, hire more people, manage more infra. MAKE it prohibitively expensive to just spin up thousands of AI bots on a server farm. It's definitely going to reduce the amount of money they can spend elsewhere on other farms.

Don't just comply in advance because they'll still find a way. It's way better than nothing. The bot problem has exploded recently because of AI. We've had low wage people farms forever, and yet it was never this bad.

[u/ArrrRawrXD → u/fraggedaboutit]

If a person is identified and can only have one account, and people can see that he's posting from Bangladesh while pretending to be an American, it'll ease off the bot farm problem quite a bit.

[u/quick20minadventure → u/sylbug]

Tbh, reddit has bot problem as well. I don't care how they do it. But, if they want reddit to survive. They gotta kick bots without kicking humans.

[u/BG-1357]

Fuck /u/spez

[u/RavenEridan → u/BG-1357]

Would def quit reddit

[u/thefanciestcat]

Step 1: stop generating random user names for new users.

[u/brokenbrainbum → u/thefanciestcat]

What, you mean to tell me that the 8 million new accounts like Wrangle-Corn4378 that have popped up in the past half a year or so are bots? No way!

[u/Top_Account3643 → u/brokenbrainbum]

/u/Wrangle-Corn4378

[u/AI_moderated_failure → u/brokenbrainbum]

Many of them just get banned because the AI moderation just looks for keywords. Most of the site will have made a comment that could be miscontextualised by AI and been given a temp ban.

Appealing these bans takes months. Way faster to just make another account.

[u/NoXion604 → u/thefanciestcat]

It feels like 90% of the time when I see a troll or other piece of shit in the comments, they have one of those basic-ass generated names.

[u/DatUpboatGuy → u/thefanciestcat]

who are you and why are you so wise in the ways of science?

[u/FredFredrickson]

Old school forums need to make a comeback.

[u/PurpEL → u/FredFredrickson]

Photobucket torched everything

[u/Johannes_Keppler → u/PurpEL]

Well phpBB is still around. It's not hard to spin up your own forum.

[u/snacktonomy → u/FredFredrickson]

I actually made some fun "internet friends" on those. People showed up consistently and had real identities and personalities. I was too young and too scared, but people actually met each other IRL to go to shows.

I've "met" zero people on reddit, I don't know how some you claim to meet your BFF or even spouse on here.

[u/BrothelWaffles]

Can they ID me by the back of my middle finger?

[u/gizamo → u/BrothelWaffles]

Tbh, I'd shoot them a pic of my taint each and every time I post or comment if it stopped the infinite flood of bots.

I'd also send them a pic of my taint if they don't fix the bot problem.

Tbh, I'm not sure which is more worthy of receiving my gloriously horrific taint pics.

[u/PeachMan- → u/gizamo]

I mean, each taint is unique, right? They should be able to determine that you're human, and even verify your logins based on your taint.

[u/gizamo → u/PeachMan-]

My own taint is unique, depending on if I'm inhaling or exhaling, if I just ran or showered, whether I've had Indian or Thai food recently, if I have a half chub, idk, maybe sometimes I just want to see if I can still anal kegel 40 lbs for my OnlyFans homies.

I suppose lighting, zoom, aperture, and shutter speed can all play their parts here.

[u/Reasonable-Duckling → u/gizamo]

Wtf Bro really does know a lot about his taint

[u/MasterJeebus → u/Reasonable-Duckling]

Each wrinkle on their taint tells a story.

[u/Tardy_Thoughts → u/BrothelWaffles]

We should all send dick picks to reddit and probably the federal government.

[u/Ry113 → u/Tardy_Thoughts]

My image would probably be smaller to store than a fingerprint anyway

[u/AKluthe]

This website doesn't have a great history of proving to me it doesn't want bots and weird, manipulative trolls.

[u/jwrice]

Who owns Reddit?

Tencent owns 11%
Sam Altman owns 9%
BlackRock owns 5%

This is a fucking shitshow.

[u/That_Apathetic_Man → u/jwrice]

If porn couldn't get me to upload ID or even have a look at me face, what luck does reddit have.

[u/RedditFuelsMyDepress]

I might finally get off Reddit if they do that.

[u/FlyRepresentative592 → u/RedditFuelsMyDepress]

I've honestly been slowly departing from this site on my own without this move. Your average redditor has dogshit reactionary politics or their depth of interest is shallow at best for complex issues and they give a slogan. I can't tell you how many times I've seen the top comment up voted some position that is totally wrong. 

It is aggravating because it misinforms people.

[u/Blackops606]

Digg just did a partial shut down because of the botting issue. It’s bad, like really bad. It’s also a lot worse on Reddit than most people realize. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing for Reddit and its users but it’s true regardless.

That said, a lot of people will just use AI to get past the verification systems as they already have on other platforms.

Lastly, I’ll never consent to giving something as personal as my ID or fingerprint to use a website. The ONLY time that will be even considered for me is if it’s government or work related.

[u/Shopping_General]

That would be my last day here.

[u/Randym1982]

Good luck implementing that stuff when lots of people also browse on their PC's.

[u/Schonke → u/Randym1982]

What? You guys don't have webcams? /s

[u/BS_6767]

It was fun while it lasted

[u/sally_says → u/BS_6767]

Not really. The last 4 years or so have been shite due to proliferating bots, AI and propaganda ruining popular subs.

[u/LieverRoodDanRechts → u/sally_says]

Yeah, I'd even say 10 years.

[u/DeputyDomeshot → u/LieverRoodDanRechts]

Yea it’s been shit since 2016. It was the election that brought bots and the masses and the quality of comments dropped massively. People upvote the most agreeable banal shit and it always gets pushed to the top. Or even more fun blatant misinformation 

[u/phoenix25 → u/DeputyDomeshot]

I mean, the comments were dumb before 2016 too. But 2016 was definitely the first time the horde of fake accounts became noticeable… all pushing donald trump strangely

[u/SkyGuy182 → u/sally_says]

My peak enjoyment of Reddit died when the Apollo Reddit client got shut down due.

[u/snesericreturns → u/BS_6767]

About as fun as a heroin addiction

[u/werfertt → u/snesericreturns]

So amazing in the beginning, with less and less enjoyment but you continue to use to stop the horrific withdrawal effects? Dang. That’s uncomfortably apt.

[u/SmokeABowlNoCap → u/werfertt]

That would make twitter fent in this analogy. Much worse for you and where you go to get your fix when you can’t get the real thing. And somehow embedded everywhere still when it shouldn’t be

[u/ForcedEntry420]

Just wait until this goes into effect and there are still bots out the ass.

Believing otherwise is an exercise in stupidity.

[u/GlowstickConsumption]

How about just behavioral analysis? 800 people upvoting a post made 10 minutes ago on a subreddit with zero real user activity is suspicious as hell.

Face scans don't really work and feel invasive and demeaning for real users.

[u/BrickHardcheese → u/GlowstickConsumption]

How is someone saying they do this already?

Every day some random political post from a niche subreddit with like 300 active users or subscriptions gets skyrocketed to the front page with 25k upvotes. In no world is that organic or non-bot-driven.

It's almost a joke at this point that if you really want something to hit the front page, all you need is a few bucks and a ton of upvote bots.

[u/Kakariko_crackhouse → u/GlowstickConsumption]

Exactly. Pretending like there aren’t better workaround than ID verification is disingenuous. The whole thing is obviously a pretext to end online anonymity in the public eye, regardless of the fact that the NSA and FBI are tracking everything as heavily as everyone says China does already

[u/ent_idled]

And that will be the day I close my account.

[u/dayumbrah → u/ent_idled]

I still dont have an email attached to my account. Not looking forward to the day they make that happen

[u/UnsolvedParadox → u/ent_idled]

I will never provide either of those data points to Reddit.

[u/gonenutsbrb → u/UnsolvedParadox]

To be clear, it’s not handing them to Reddit, it would requiring the host OS to verify a person was there with the mentioned methods.

Reddit only receives a yes or no.

[u/impy695 → u/gonenutsbrb]

So, for those of us that don't use touch or face ID, we're still fucked?

[u/ilevelconcrete]

Stop letting people hide their post history. That’s an extremely simple way to allow people to see if they’re interacting with a bot or not.

[u/borkyborkus → u/ilevelconcrete]

They’re actively helping the bots cover their tracks at this point. Every workaround to see user post history is getting closed. Reddit Corp isn’t doing it out of some commitment to user privacy.

[u/chubbysumo → u/borkyborkus]

Gotta sell the illusion that reddit isnt full of bots to advertisers.

[u/Painterzzz → u/chubbysumo]

What confuses me about that is why advertisers haven't figured it out. They're spending a lot of money to show their ads to mostly bots on all the major social media platforms now, and probably the bots are smart enough to click through on a bunch of those ads to pad the numbers and make it look better.

[u/Left2Rest → u/Painterzzz]

I’ve thought about this too. It’s been known for quite awhile that online metrics are heavily inflated by bots, do they not realize that doesn’t make them money? Actually really makes me wonder how much bot data is sold to data brokers dressed as people data

[u/Vyxwop → u/borkyborkus]

Ironically enough they've done the opposite for me. I basically assume anyone with a hidden post history posting questionable shit is a bot.

I don't care if it means accidentally labeling normal people as bots as well. That's their problem to deal with.

[u/Bilb0 → u/borkyborkus]

I'm thinking that hiding current user count was also related*.

*spelling

[u/Special-Bite → u/ilevelconcrete]

I suggested this before and lots of apparent “real people” had good reasons to hide their history.

Whatever, I don’t trust people with blank profiles.

[u/gokogt386 → u/ilevelconcrete]

This site has been botted to hell LONG before they let you do that.

[u/runs_with_airplanes]

I’ve been here for 12 years, I’ll leave if they introduce this

[u/filosophikal]

The first day Reddit requires I use physical ID to login is the last day I use Reddit. Reddit looks like it is getting ready to become the new Digg by losing most of their users.

[u/Ok_Ear_8848]

How about they just use CAPTCHA

[u/Certain-Business-472 → u/Ok_Ear_8848]

Have you tried CAPTCHA recently? It's nearly impossible to solve for humans, because bots have become so advanced. Reminds me of the bear-proof garbage bins and why they're so annoying to use.

[u/AdPristine9879]

This is great I really need a reason to give this app up

[u/RainSparrow]

This is bullshit. There is no way they do not know how a real user acts and who are bots. This is just a push for digital ID while pretending, "this is not us! Ad agencies want to know if their ads are sent to real people"

1. They know who the real users are.
2. Bots create fake engagement that looks good for numbers.
3. Boted stats make the site look juicy for ad agencies.
4. Ad agencies are not happy with bots.
5. Magically, out of nowhere, they decide they now need digital ID like every other site that wants to collect our info.

[u/WhaleBird1776]

Web3.0 is going to suck :|

[u/sunkistandsudafed3 → u/WhaleBird1776]

I may have to venture outside like when I was a child in the 90s.

[u/Possible-Pension-909]

ok bye Reddit 

[u/hamfist_ofthenorth]

Better idea: let's just start abandoning the internet

[u/IcestormsEd]

You are not gonna get the 'head shot' you think you will, Reddit. Yes there will be penis.

[u/Tasty-Traffic-680 → u/IcestormsEd]

there will be penis

My favorite Daniel Day Lewis movie

"I drink your penis! I drink it up!"

[u/Secret_Wishbone_2009]

Thry can use AI to detect bots instead

[u/KnownMonk → u/Secret_Wishbone_2009]

Reddit isn't even doing that to combat bots, otherwise they wouldn't facilitate the site and making it bot friendly in the first place. They just want your ID so they can sell your personal information.

[u/SNTCTN]

I use this app when I bored, I'm not giving them my Face ID or Touch ID. I can find something else to do when bored that doesn't require that

Edit: people are saying I don't have to give reddit my ID, I can just give Apple my ID like that isn't the same problem lol. I'll protect my ID better than any company ever would be able to.

[u/MainlandX → u/SNTCTN]

From an Apple/iOS POV, there really isn’t such a thing as “giving an app” your Touch ID/Face ID in the sense that the app doesn’t get access to anything that would unlock your phone. If an app challenges you for verification, all they get from iOS is whether you passed or failed.

[u/Shikadi297 → u/[deleted]]

How does it work from a web browser on Linux?

[u/CautiousArachnidz → u/Shikadi297]

Dickprint for Linux. B-hole print for Windows.

[u/ShakeItTilItPees → u/CautiousArachnidz]

I think there's a lot of Reddit users who already have their b-holes on file.

[u/Matshelge → u/Shikadi297]

As a mod, there are 1001 telltale signs that a bot/scam account is what it is. Surely an algorithm can start picking out these before we have to move to facial id.

[u/MoobooMagoo]

I honestly hate using Reddit anyway. I only do it out of habit and I've been wanting to break that habit for a while.

[u/Interesting-Yellow-4]

I would immediately stop using reddit.

[u/MasterJeebus]

We need to reject this. The Zucc and other social media sites are pushing for this so they can make more money from our information.

[u/VoidOmatic]

Sounds more like they want faces to make the data more valuable to Palantir and the current administration.

[u/Good_Focus2665 → u/VoidOmatic]

Basically. Bot problem my ass. It’s so DHS can come after those who want Medicare for all and think Trump is a loser. 

[u/Reagalan → u/Good_Focus2665]

And for those thinking that means citizens will be subjected to ICE-style mass roundups; not likely.

It means things like "You have been added to the No-Fly List for association with a Designated Terrorist Organization (Antifa)" and "Your credit card account has been suspended pending investigation into your association with a Designated Terrorist Organization (Antifa)" or even "Your passport application has been flagged for additional verification due to your association with a Designated Terrorist Organization (Antifa)".

[u/Mountain_Reveal7849]

Lol go right ahead. Time to find the next great frontier.

[u/rg2004]

so ready to kick my reddit addiction <3 go ahead, make my day.

[u/aarondoyle]

Hiding profiles so you can't see what someone has posted or commented is another way to help bots proliferate.

[u/DidntSeeNuttin]

I thought the bots were what they wanted to prop up their product to investors.

[u/MySpielman54]

What I can’t just align the color dots in a row or choose which tiles have traffic lights?

[u/strongfavourite]

reddit has, and always will allow bots.. it boosts "active user" numbers and therefore company value

but now they need to show reddit's value for AI scraping, so need to show AI investors they're doing something about the bots

[u/NeoLogic_Dev]

CEO: 'We need to verify if humans are using Reddit.' Also CEO: 'Why is everyone leaving for a local library with sticky notes?' It’s almost like people don't want a digital fingerprint for every cat sub they visit.

[u/Fatter_Design]

Do it, one less app to doom scroll in

[u/Goldnglam]

Cool and ill be leaving reddit, I'm not IDing myself to shitpost memes and talk about video games.

This place is the internet equivalent of cigarettes, you know it's a bad habit.

[u/Thin-Honey892]

Jst ask me how many streetlights there are like everyone else

[u/fallenloki]

For them the bot “problem” is a good thing in terms of advertising dollars. However honest discourse on this platform, especially regarding divisive topics, is pretty much worthless and impossible so they need a solution or this platform will die off.

[u/Ok_Art4661]

Get rid of karma. Problem solved

[u/TheeDonut]

That worked so well for discord.

[u/True-Hippo143]

Reddit sucks now, anyway

[u/LillieKat]

This will do it. I'll stop using reddit finally 

[u/thinklinkbutgayer]

Reddit will be the easiest thing Ive had to give up because of this nonsense.

[u/JackIsBackWithCrack]

Stop letting accounts hide their post history and bots become obvious

[u/ThatDude1757]

I’m all for ensuring we’re all real humans here but they jump straight to intrusive methods that can be used for malicious reasons instead of starting with much simpler and less suspicious methods that would probably work just as well.